Optical interconnection for high-speed routers

Electric power consumed by routers and switches is rapidly increasing with expanding flow of information. To suppress the increasing power consumption, optics has been expected to play an important role for interconnects of such network equipments. We describe the advanced optical interconnecting technologies: highly-efficient optical devices and electrical circuits, and their integration for compact optical modules operating at high-speed with low-power consumption. The interconnecting technology will open up highly energy efficient routers /switches supporting advanced network functions.